so the real excuse for poor blogging can now be told....for the last few months my siblings and I have been planning a surprise b-day party for my Mom's 70th. I flew out to Utah, solo, to celebrate the event on the 5th of this month. My contribution to the gala was the above invitation, which anyone who knows me knows that I find mailing anything a serious challenge. I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I was able to complete the invitations and mail them on time. Shocking, I know. Anyway, I think the night was a success and I am so thankful that everyone in my family pulled together to make this happen and also I am so grateful to all the friends and family that came and helped make the evening special for all of us. Oh, and of course thanks to a wonderful Mom who deserves 70 years of celebrations but must settle for this one night. So here are some fabulous pics, thanks to Jennifer Grigg photogragy
Surprise!
The next six pics capture her initial reaction.
Notice my wonderful sister-in-law Keri's great face on the left, love it!
my brother Gerry, we are the same height
me and my Mom
My mom and her brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Loretta
my cousins Darrel, Shannon and Susan
my beautiful niece Samantha
Me with Tom's beautiful sister and Mom, Heidi and Pam--I'm so glad they came!
my other beautiful niece Nicole, she masterminded the video production recapping briefly mom's 70 years
My brother-in-law Scott and my nephews Jake and Caleb
My other beautiful sister-in-law Michelle
More nephews, clockwise starting with the blue tie: Donny, Jared, John and Josh
Me and my nieces Syndee and Lecy. Syndee's birthday was the same day as the party. Happy Birthday Syndee!
More fabulous nieces: Amanda and Hannah above,
Sydnee, Lecy, Autumn and Siera below
the birthday cake
the quilt my amazing sister Dona pieced together and hand embroidered all in a week while still being a mother of 8.
Mom and Autumn
my other brother Grant, we look so much alike sometimes he get mistaken for my father
the fan dam: Grant, me, Mom, Dona and Gerry
It has taken me two weeks of napping coupled with two or three before-noon-diet-cokes to recover from that whirlwind of a weekend. I think I slept a total of 10 hours in 3 days--something I used to be able to do in my youth bu,t as Tom always reminds me, I'm an old woman now. Anyway, I had a great time and my girls ate out all weekend with Tom. They hardly noticed I was gone.
